Gus Van Sant, reverting to the vein of Good Will Hunting, goes all soft and squishy (don't be fooled by the scruffy surface) with the tall tale of another youthful genius, a black high-school athlete and closet littérateur (diffident newcomer Rob Brown) who finds a mentor in an irascible old recluse (Sean Connery) shut inside a Bronx brownstone -- the author of "the great 20th-century novel" before he sank into premature silence. (The genius of Hunting, Matt Damon, puts in a cameo appearance near the end.) Sentimental drivel, rising (together with your gorge) to a suspenseless preordained showdown against a prep-school pedant. F. Murray Abraham, Anna Paquin, Busta Rhymes. (2000) — Duncan Shepherd
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